AFP - The aura of youth and indestructible energy cultivated by
President Nicolas Sarkozy was dealt a severe blow last night when
he collapsed while jogging at Versailles.
One of the first people to rush to his aid was his wife, Carla
Bruni-Sarkzoy. She was seen by an eyewitness arriving on a
motorbike from the presidential retreat nearby.
Although President Sarkozy, 54, was flown by helicopter to a
military hospital in Paris, the Elysee Palace said that he had been
the victim of a relatively banal fainting fit - or "vasovagal
episode". Such fits, rarely serious, can be brought on by, amongst
other things, stress or too much physical exercise.
"He was immediately seen by his doctor." The Elysee Palace said
in its first statement. "Additional examinations are in progress.
Other information will be released later."
Claude GuEant, the president's secretary general, or chief of
staff, added last night that M. Sarkozy was "well" and was
"chatting normally to the medical staff." A spokesperson later
denied that the president had fainted.
M. Sarkozy was being kept in the Val-de-Grce military hospital
in the fifth arrondissement of Paris overnight for precautionary
checks, according to Elysee sources. He was expected to make a full
and rapid recovery. The political impact of his fainting fit could,
however, be more difficult to gauge.
M. Sarkozy, nicknamed the "hyper-president", has sold himself to
the French public, and the wider world, as the tireless, can-do
successor to 26 years of elderly and immobile French
leadership.
One of the most startling images of his first days in office in
May 2007 was footage of the President of the Republic jogging in
the Bois de Boulogne in a sweat-shirt marked NYPD (New York Police
department).
He has since set a punishing pace in both his political and
private lives: divorcing; marrying a pop star after a whirlwind
romance; and taking hold of most of the levers of French
government, including those usually held by the Prime Minister.
He runs for an hour in the grounds of the Elysee Palace several
times a week but brings his mobile phone with him. On one occasion
a senior Elysee official was briefing journalists when he received
a call from the president running in the grounds.
The president collapsed while running in the park of the palace
of Versailles, close to La Lanterne, a retreat officially available
to French prime ministers but commandeered by M. Sarkozy early in
his presidency. An eyewitness who was walking in the palace grounds
soon after 1pm told the French news agency, AFP, that she had seen
an exhausted-looking man running along between his security
guards.
